| Tena Stivicic - Cabaret Brecht - Zadrzivi uspon Artura Uija |
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Author: Bertolt Brecht
Directed by: Lenka Udovicki Composer: Nigel Osborne Costume: Bianca Adzic Ursulov Production designer: Sesnic Choreographer: Stasa Zurovac Dramaturg :Tena Stivicic Author of songs and sound designer: Davor Rocco Stage movement: Mladen Vasary Accompanist and conductor: Charles Hubak Assistant director and video designer Marin Lukanovi? lecturer Marina Vujcic Premiere: 22nd July 2011 |
| CAST: Ozren Grabaric Mladen Vasary Mislav Cavajda Goran Bogdan Maja Posavec Damir Saban Drazen Sivak Damir Poljicak Jure Ivanusicc Zoran Pribicevic Igor Kovac Filip Detelic |
| Cabaret Brecht - Zadrzivi uspon Artura Uija (The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui) Alegory has become reality Brecht wrote The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui in 1941. in less than a month, whilst waiting for a visa to enter America which was going to be his temporary home for the next several years. America had not yet entered WWII and the goal of the play was simple – to present a clear cause and effect analysis of the chronology of events which facilitated Hitler’s rise to power. The play points to the fact that Hitler, this monstrous occurrence which took the world by surprise and left it wondering for decades to come how on Earth such a thing was possible, in fact went through a simple, progressive and entirely resistible rise made possible by the properties of capitalism, the psychological mechanisms of a people faced with a financial crisis and a set of corruptive methods in accumulating power which neglect the awareness of long term accountability. With the American audience in mind Brecht transposed the historical events leading up to WWII from their original setting to the gangster world of the 1930s Chicago. In the world of petty criminals refining their methods and slowly rising from the underground to political power each character had its real counterpart, Ernesto Roma, Ui’s right hand being Ernst Rhom, the florist Giussepe Givola Joseph Goebbels and Emanuele Giri Herman Ghoring among others. Brecht’s formula is simple – passivity, conformism, fascism. Looking away when the first signs of tyranny start to emerge paves the path for a strategy which will gradually desensitize people’s awareness and prepare the ground for the unprecedented atrocities to come. However, reading the play today, one is taken aback by an unexpected twist. What was once an allegory, a sketch of the joint venture of mafia and government in the quest for power and profit heightened to the point of caricature, today rings oddly authentic. Lines said are like exact quotes from contemporary newspapers. The abuse of power and the exploitation of the little people within the evolved capitalist system takes place today again on a global plane. Loans to projects never to be built, betrayal of public interest, accumulation of wealth of unprecedented proportions are everyday news. Labour is getting increasingly cheaper and instances of disaster capitalism which uses cataclysmic events around the world as investment opportunities more common. Wherever disaster strikes it creates a clean slate to build on. Bigger, better and more lucrative. The pattern is familiar. And all of this takes place with obscene transparency within the framework of the liberties of the free world. The malleable capitalist ethics, a source of constant disdain for Brecht, has proven to be adaptable beyond all expectation. It survived the turmoil of the 20th century and outlived all the turbulent movements and controversial rebellions. And as it incorporates revolutionary slogans into its own propaganda possibilities of opposition become less and less available. Perhaps some hope is to be found in the fact that the decadence of late capitalism points to its descent. If character is the sum of all social circumstances, then contemporary characters are struck by a deep paradox. In their nominal freedom their addiction to choices selected for them by others is grotesque and their spirit is paralysed. Everything is allowed and everything possible. For each failure each person has only him or herself to blame. Finally, what is there left to say, and particularly so in theatre, when all has already been said. What is there to say when information overload is certainly the key agent in our growing indifference. Perhaps still, today as ever, it's time to remember one of Brecht's thoughts: Difficulties are not mastered by keeping silent about them. Tena Stivicic |
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| Tena Stivicic attends the premiere of Zadrzivi uspon Artura Uija - 22nd July 2011. |
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| Director Lenka Udovicki |
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| Photos by: Tomislav Cuveljak. |
| This production directed by Lenka Udovicki “is a satirical show, a mixture of cabaret and opera, a kind of musical," |